If you haven't been on a cruise yet, and consider sailing, many thoughts will go through your mind. For the new senior sailor, there are the typical fears we’ve all heard before. Most are just rumors or old wives’ (and old husbands’) tales. To put your mind at ease, let’s look at ‘em. 

1. First timer’s seasickness: This is an old myth that may have been true for passengers in 1620 on the bounding Mayflower. Modern cruise ships, even on rough seas, have stabilizers that regulate the ship movements. You’ll feel about as much shaking as you’d experience in a bus or car on a smooth highway. Actually, you’ll probably find the gentle motions of the ship will lull you to peaceful sleep at night in your comfy cabin.

2. Cruise ships are unclean: They’re at least as clean as any luxury hotel. When on a cruise, you’ll see crew members daily scrubbing all areas of the ship. The news about colds and flu spreading on some cruises are usually because passengers bring them aboard, as happens on airplanes, buses and trains. If you take normal health precautions, your chances of having a healthy cruise are excellent.

Sadly, it happens too frequently. Recently in the news, a disabled car left a retired couple stranded in an isolated area of the Nevada desert. After several days, the elderly husband died of exposure, and his barely-alive wife was finally rescued two weeks later.

This kind of tragedy happened frequently from covered wagon days to the invention of the mobile phone a century later. However, with the availability of inexpensive cell phones today, no isolated travelers should have to suffer such a tragic fate.

On your next extended car or RV journey with your gang, instead of everyone spending all the time poking at their Smartphones, do some old-fashioned group singing. Before you go, research lyrics and print up pages for all car occupants. Choosing the best travel songs is a matter of who’s along for the ride. 

If the driver is grandpop and the passengers in the back are very young kids, the songs will likely be old traditional favorites, mostly campfire and Disney songs. If grandpop is old enough to prefer Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Bing Crosby songs to sing, he probably shouldn’t be behind the wheel at his advanced age.

If the driver is a graying 60ish, and the people in the back are into their 30s, the travel songs filling the air may be by the Beatles, Presley, the Rolling Stones, Madonna and Springsteen.

Ah, Paris! City of lovers! A comfy, intimate hotel room overlooking the Eiffel Tower ... and overlooking hiked-up pricing. We won’t go into names, but a half-dozen online travel agencies recently each quoted the same rate for a so-called upscale Parisian hotel.

Was it a coincidence that that they all listed the deal at $77 a night? It's a fantastic bargain, if that’s all you’ll pay. Of course, in another part of the promo, there were the real totals listed in much smaller type, and the $77 leaped up to $170 and more to be taken out of your pocket.